Tens of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children have been located by the Trump administration so far, announced White House officials in a news conference on Thursday.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that “we found 146,000 kids so far” as he spoke during a news conference at the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) headquarters alongside acting Attorney General Todd Blanche.
“Some of these kids claimed that they were raped 600 to 700 times. I don’t care who you are … if you can’t stand for law enforcement to go find these kids, who are you?” he also said.
Also during Thursday’s news conference, Blanche said the DOJ is currently tracking 15,500 “super sponsor cases” connected to thousands of minors. Blanche disclosed this information while announcing the indictments of three illegal immigrants who partook in an alleged conspiracy to traffic more than a dozen children into the United States.
In some cases, children who were being trafficked by “sponsors” were abused and advised to lie to U.S. government officials by using fake or stolen identities and making false claims, among other criminal behavior, he said.
“I think I’m stating the obvious, but when the government fails to protect our borders, it is the most vulnerable who suffer,” Blanche said.
Mullin said that most of the missing migrant children were located in cities with “sanctuary” polices. Loosely defined, a sanctuary city or jurisdiction refers to an area where local law enforcement and officials are generally precluded from cooperating with federal immigration authorities such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Last year, the DOJ released a list of what it said were cities and states that implement sanctuary policies, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle, Portland, and the states of California, New York, and New Jersey, among others.
“We are currently—which we’re not initiating yet—but we’re currently drawing up plans,” he told Fox News’s “The Sean Hannity Show” in late May, adding that customs officials should not be “processing international flights” in sanctuary jurisdictions because federal immigration law isn’t being enforced.
Mullin on Thursday specifically mentioned New York City as an area with sanctuary policies.
“I want to be very clear about the fact that I believe that ICE raids are cruel, they are inhumane, they do nothing to serve in the interest of public safety,” New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in response to Homan’s remarks. “I’ve shared that directly with the president. I’ve shared that in public. It is a feeling that many New Yorkers share.”
The Epoch Times contacted Mamdani’s office for comment on Thursday but did not receive a response by press time.